New Year Painting Challenge: October

The end of another month and so another painting blog, which means its time to show off some more of my work to you wonderful people out there. Been the month of spooks and ghouls, I aimed to paint a decent amount of my Necrons to celebrate Halloween. Well… that was the plan, but as any of you who have been following my progress these last few months will know, I am terrible at staying on task. That been said, I do have quite a bit to show off this month, so I reckon you can forgive me for my complete lack of focus.

As you know, I have already hit my target for yearly models painted, so now it’s a case of seeing how far I can take it before we reach the end of the year. As we approach the end of 2020 (and another lockdown) I have started on a new army to keep myself busy. One that I have wanted to paint for a long, long time and have finally decided to dive into. So, without further ado, allow me to share with you my new favourite army. The Adeptus Custodes.


Ever since I first saw their wonderful art in Vision of War, I have wanted to build and play with an army of Adeptus Custodes. Seeing these living demi-gods of war brought to life in some of the best artwork I have even seen at the time, I was in awe of the Emperors bodyguards and wanted to see what they could do on the battlefield. Sadly, there were no rules or miniatures for these legendary warriors at the time, and unless you were willing to do some heavy converting and use some home brew stats, you were out of luck.

However, when I returned to the hobby, I discovered to my immense joy that not only did the Adeptus Custodes have a miniature range, but had once more become active in the lore and were ready to show the enemies of mankind what they could do. I decided then and there that at some point I would have an army of these superior warriors. Fast forward to about a month ago and I find myself buying some hobby supplies at my local game store, when I spot a box of Custodes on the shelf. Figuring I could get a box to test out some schemes out in between projects, I decided to throw caution to the wind and added them to my purchase. And so it began.

I started out building my first box so that I could use the Guards inside as a squad of four (with one un-helmeted Custodes to fill in as a Shield-Captain should it be required) and a Vexillus Praetor. This would give me the start of a Combat Patrol, as well as the foundation of a more sizable force. I decided to paint them in an alternative scheme to the usual gold and red, and instead went for a silver and blue scheme. Partly because it would make them stand out more, and partly because I wanted to test out snowy bases (which I feel wouldn’t match up well with bright gold armour). And so I got to work, sticking to a fairly basic colour plate of silver, blue and brown for the leather.

I was very pleased with the results. So, pleased in fact I quickly got myself a second box to expand the army. This would give me a three minimum strength units of Custodes (one shield and two spears in each) as well as the above mentioned Vexillus Praetor.

But Troops and Elites alone do not an army make, so I would need some designated HQ’s to lead my force. Step in Valerian, one half of the Black Library celebration box set. A suitable regal looking miniature, Valerian makes for a great Shield-Captain to lead my force. Painting him the same scheme as the rest of my Guards, he looks right at home as he gazes sternly on his fellow Custodes. His partner, Aleya, will be unlikely to see battle in the near future, but I do have plans for her (watch this space).

Next, I decided to add the Captain-General himself, and painted up Trajann Valoris. A brilliant model, and a suitably imposing centre piece to any Adeptus Custodes army, this high lord has been on top of my wish list for a long time. He also (if I do say so myself) looks amazing in silver and blue.

And with my three squad of Guard to make the foundation of a Battalion sized force, this means I can go to town on the Elites chooses as the army grows in size. Additionally, I also had 900ish points of models painted, putting me very close to a Incursion level army. All I needed was a 100 points to round it up.

Enter stage right not one. Not two. But three Imperial Assassins. I’ve had these sitting on my shelf for the better part of the year, and since they have been known to work along side the Custodes from time to time, they seemed like a perfect fit to the force. I can either use one as a Agent of the Imperium, or run all three as a Vanguard Detachment bringing my total up to around 1.200 points.

I do have an Eversor left to paint so I can have one of each of the major temples on the field, but he is currently undergoing repairs after been squashed. Hopefully he will be up and running sooner rather than later and I will be able to field a full Execution Force.

And don’t worry. Since it is the season of spooks and monsters, I did managed to paint on scary mini this month. A xeno parasite that is capable of mimicking its prey, hiding in plain sight before impaling them on its barbed tongue. The Ordo Xenos is yet to capture a living specimen, but they all know to fear its wraith. It has many names, but most call it by the alias; Cyan.


And that will do it for today. I’ll be back at the end of November, and if I can stay on one project for longer than two minutes I might be able to get my Custodes up to 2.000 points. If you don’t want to miss out on that or any of the other great content we do please like and subscribe to keep up to date with all we do here at Master of Magics.

If you want to join me on this journey, show me what you have been working on over on via twitter @TenguPlaysGames, or contact me in the comments below. If you have enjoyed todays article, you want to support the site directly, you can join our Patreon for as little as a $1 a month. Until next time though remember, “The Emperor Protects”.

 

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